Choosing the Right Formation in FIFA 20

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Players have had a few months to get to grips with FIFA 20, but there’s a lot to unpack. If you’re sick of getting dabbed on by other players, it’s time to get serious about your formations and tactics.

Here’s our guide to choosing the right formation in FIFA 20.

Form Up

There are over 30 formations available in FIFA 20, plus ways to tweak them with tactics and instructions. That can be overwhelming for a new manager, but the thing to remember is this: it’s all about you.

There are no overpowering or easy-win formations. The formation you choose should be the sum of your preferred playstyle, your players, and the tactics you expect to use. In other words, deciding your formation upfront based on your playstyle can help you choose the players you need to run it.

To match your formation to your playstyle, think about your habits. Perhaps you attack from the wings more often than not, or you’re a reactive player that lets the opponent make the first move. The personality of your playstyle should align with your formation.

A Few Favourites

Here’s a small selection of our favourite formations and how they work in practice. This will show you how a formation dovetails with your style of play.

4-4-2: The English classic is viable in FIFA 20, but it remains fairly conservative, like its real-world counterpart. This one is all about team composition. You’ll need a strong core of mid-fielders to elevate this jack-of-all-trades above a master of none, but if your midfielders know what they’re doing and you have an excellent striker, it can turn into one of the best scoring formations in FIFA 20.

4-2-3-1: If you’re not a confident player, this is an excellent safety net of a formation. It’s reliable in an all-round way, much like 4-4-2. Its weaknesses come out in competitive play, as it needs a confident player to manage its vulnerabilities.

4-2-2-2: This is a balanced formation with great utility, which can adapt to almost any playstyle. It’s another excellent choice for the player still learning their style.

4-3-3 (2): Wing play has made a serious comeback in FIFA 20 and this formation offers a defensive edge over 4-3-3, placing more focus on the wingers.

Tactics and Instructions

While formations set the basic strategic overview for your game, setting the right tactics can bring out the best in a formation. Likewise, instructions can fine-tune the performance of each player, so you can milk each formation for all its worth.

Using a 4-4-2, for instance, you can tell your team to Drop Back to maintain cohesion and hold a defensive line, turning it into one of the best defending formations in FIFA 20. Or you can set Pressure on Heavy Touch and have your strikers Get In Behind to put the pressure on your opponents.

The three-part combo of formations, tactics, and instructions creates a huge variety of gameplay options. If in doubt, experiment. You’ll never know what works best for your playstyle if you don’t take some risks.